The news that a UAE-based real estate typhoon would be making a state-of-the-art shopping mall in Srinagar was music to ears. The fact that it has the capacity to provide jobs to at least 7500 youth of the valley has left waves of joy waft in the cold winter air of Kashmir valley. If a real estate giant like Emaar Group sees the potential of investing in Jammu and Kashmir there is enough cue to believe that other major investments are also round the corner. That should usher an era of development and prosperity.
We need investors for our lavender farms, perfume oils, packaging and horticulture industry. We need IT parks where the start-up culture can be spawned and incentivized. There are thousands of brilliant youths with some incredibly sharp ideas up their sleeves. The onus should be to listen to their ideas calmly and provide them with an environment where they can execute those ideas. We need more institutions like EDI which can support a proper start-up culture in Kashmir Valley as well as in the Jammu region. It is ironic that hundreds of Kashmir youth have started their IT companies with remarkable success in places like Noida, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru. It is a great irony. With IT companies the only raw materials required are brilliant ideas, a few like-minded people, constant electricity, and the internet. If we provide the basic necessary things to our youths, they definitely would start a great start-up culture in Kashmir.
They say well begun is half done. We can be rest assured that once the Emaar group starts its Shopping mall project and executes it well there would be a beeline of other investors who would be milling in and out of the Kashmir valley. That should be a great beginning for the financial year starting April 2024. The cherry on the cake is that with the start of the next year, we will have rail connectivity to Kashmir which is indeed great news for both horticulture and tourism. Since the cumulative cost of a trip to Kashmir would now be considerably less, many shy tourists would also be willing to visit Kashmir with their families.
Let us hope for a brilliant 2024. It should be a year that would be remembered for all years to come, all for good reasons.
